In maritime trade law, a charter agreement refers to the type of freight contract concluded for the carriage of a cargo. The charter agreement gives the lessor the right to use only the carrying capacity of the ship, while the shipowner continues to maintain the expedition and management of the ship. In this type of contract, there are two types of full and partial charters according to the volume of the space allocated to the vehicle. The entire ship is kept in full charter. In the partial charter, a certain place of the ship is reserved for the carrier. According to the way the ship is used, the travel and time criteria are divided into two types. A cruise charter refers to the holding of a ship to carry a certain cargo from one port to another port. Here, the ship can also be kept for multiple trips. If it is in the time book, the ship is kept for a certain time, and the freight is determined by the time measure. In this agreement, the owner of the ship pays the warehouse and command costs, and also has limited authority to instruct the captain and ship’s people in the commercial field.

According to the law, the charter agreement is not bound to a special form in the sense of its form. In practice, it is carried out through brokers (brokers) engaged in maritime affairs and on the terms of type-contracts. The parties or authorized persons acting on their behalf, after having determined the important conditions of the contract in a summary manner with a document called “fixing letter”, prepare the written contract. Although there is no written contractual obligation from a legal point of view, this method is widely used as a means of proof. Each of the parties may request that a document related to the freight contract (charter party in Turkish law) be provided to it. (Turkish Commercial Code, m. 1017). When preparing a written contract, the formulas prepared by the Ba’k Countries and the International Maritime Conference (BIMCO) and the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping (Chof Sh) are followed. When any dispute arises, the relevant court shall clarify the matter by examining the charter agreement document. However, in practice, disputes are usually resolved through arbitration. The most important articles of the charter agreements are those related to the number of days provided for loading and unloading the goods and who will cover the costs, which clarification of these elements will have consequences for the parties.

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